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The accumulation of human capital in developing countries

发展中国家人力资本的积累

基本信息

批准号：
ES/K010700/1
负责人：
Orazio Attanasio
金额：
$ 90.08万
依托单位：
Institute for Fiscal Studies
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2013
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2013 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FK010700%2F1
关键词：
accumulation human capital developing countries

项目摘要

I will study the process of human capital accumulation among poor families in developing countries. Recent research in many disciplines has established that human capital, the set of physical capabilities (health, nutritional status) and cognitive and non-cognitive skills that make individuals productive, is key in the process of development, both at the level of the individuals and of societies. From a micro perspective, it is well established that human capital is multidimensional and its accumulation is a complex dynamic process that starts very early in the life of human. Indeed, there is mounting evidence that what happens from conception to 5 has long run consequences, in part because the level of development in the first few years affects the ability individuals have to develop further later in life. This type of dynamic phenomena is what economists call dynamic complementarities of investment in human capital. It is also increasingly clear that the first few years are particularly malleable. This implies that, if on the one hand children in difficult environments might be particularly vulnerable, on the other, the early years are particularly salient for policy interventions. Well- targeted and well-designed interventions in the early years can have long lasting effects sustained long after the intervention is concluded. I intend to answer some of the outstanding issues in the study of human capital accumulation during the early years of poor children in developing countries. My research is articulated around three related themes: (i) the study of what economist call the production function of human capital; While much is known about the factors that affect the growth of human capital, many outstanding issues (about the size of dynamic complementarities, about the interaction of different components of human capital and about effect of certain inputs) remain. (ii) The study of the investment decisions poor parents in developing countries make about their children's human capital. Parents invest time and money in their children's development. Modeling these choices and identifying what are the factors that affect them is key for the design of policies aimed at fostering human capital accumulation. Parental choices will react to policies and incentives in ways that might hinder or enhance their effects.(iii) The identification of distortions in the perceptions that poor parents might have of the human capital production function and of the returns to specific investments. Parent's distorted beliefs might induce wrong choices. By looking at parents choices in contexts where specific interventions (provided to a random subset of the population) change behaviour by changing information, one can identify both the 'distorted' perception parents might have and the actual production function of human capital and contrast them. The identification of such distorted perceptions can also be pursued by measuring directly individual beliefs. Regardless of the method used, the identification of individual beliefs and their possible distortion is key for the design of policy. The proposed research grows from several projects that I have been pursuing in the last few years and that have involved the design and evaluation (or the evaluation) of early childhood development interventions in developing countries. These activities have put me in the position of having the possibility of designing survey questionnaires and tailoring data to the needs of specific research questions. Many of the data sets I will use from several developing countries (Colombia, Malawi, India) have been collected within Randomized Control Trials to evaluate specific interventions. Therefore, the data contain variation that is by construction exogenous and that can be used to estimate the models I study. Most of the data sets I will use have a longitudinal dimension and contain measures of many aspects of children development.

我将研究发展中国家贫困家庭的人力资本积累过程。许多学科的最新研究表明，人力资本，即使个人具有生产力的一整套身体能力（健康、营养状况）以及认知和非认知技能，是个人和社会发展进程的关键。从微观的角度来看，人力资本是多维的，人力资本的积累是一个复杂的动态过程，它从人的生命早期就开始了。事实上，越来越多的证据表明，从受孕到5岁所发生的事情具有长期影响，部分原因是最初几年的发展水平影响了个人在以后生活中进一步发展的能力。这种动态现象被经济学家称为人力资本投资的动态互补性。越来越明显的是，最初几年的可塑性特别大。这意味着，如果一方面处于困难环境中的儿童可能特别脆弱，另一方面，幼年时期对于政策干预特别重要。早期目标明确和设计良好的干预措施可以在干预结束后产生长期持续的影响。我打算回答发展中国家贫困儿童早年人力资本积累研究中的一些悬而未决的问题。我的研究围绕三个相关主题进行阐述：（1）经济学家称之为人力资本生产函数的研究;虽然对影响人力资本增长的因素有很多了解，但仍然存在许多悬而未决的问题（关于动态互补性的大小，关于人力资本不同组成部分的相互作用以及关于某些投入的效果）。(ii)研究发展中国家贫困父母对子女人力资本的投资决策。父母在孩子的成长上投入了时间和金钱。为这些选择建立模型并确定影响这些选择的因素是设计旨在促进人力资本积累的政策的关键。父母的选择将以可能阻碍或加强政策和激励措施效果的方式对政策和激励措施作出反应。(iii)查明贫困父母对人力资本生产功能和具体投资回报的看法中可能存在的扭曲。父母扭曲的信念可能导致错误的选择。通过观察父母的选择，在特定的干预措施（提供给人口的随机子集）通过改变信息来改变行为的情况下，人们可以识别父母可能拥有的“扭曲”感知和人力资本的实际生产函数，并将它们进行对比。也可以通过直接测量个人信念来识别这种扭曲的看法。无论使用何种方法，确定个人信念及其可能的扭曲是政策设计的关键。拟议的研究来自我在过去几年中一直在追求的几个项目，涉及发展中国家儿童早期发展干预措施的设计和评估（或评估）。这些活动使我有可能设计调查问卷，并根据具体研究问题的需要定制数据。我将使用的来自几个发展中国家（哥伦比亚、马拉维、印度）的许多数据集都是在随机对照试验中收集的，用于评估特定的干预措施。因此，这些数据包含的变异是外生的，可以用来估计我所研究的模型。我将使用的大多数数据集都是纵向的，包含了儿童发展的许多方面的指标。